The Water Ghost and Others

"In novels like [Toppleton's Client (1893)] – and in collections like The Water Ghost and Others (coll 1894), which contains his best work, Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others (coll 1898) and Over the Plum Pudding (coll 1901) – JKB attempted to master a comically debunking style of fantasy which was like that of Mark Twain in its occasional savagery (though lacking Twain's profundity or wit) and like that of L Frank Baum in the spoof literalism of some of its plots (though never to magic effect, as in Oz)." -- SFE: Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)